Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post
Where do you want me to start?

Should I start with the 1-2-3 from a team on a road stage, something that I've never seen before in a grand tour? Or should I mention the second 1-2-3 from the same team a few days later?

Maybe I should mention the first 1-2-3 overall by a team in a grand tour since the 1928 Tour de France (I'm discounting the dodgy 1966 Vuelta, where only the Spanish Kas squad finished a full team amongst the 55 finishers, and put six riders in the top seven. [General Franco was still running a dictatorship at this time.]) Even Armstrong's Trek squad, who were doped up to their eyeballs, couldn't do a team 1-2-3.

It was probably the way three of their team waltzed off the front at will, making Evenepoel and Thomas (both grand tour winners), plus Ayuso, Landa, Mas and Vlasov, look like rubbish. Again and again.

They say it takes about two months to recover from a grand tour, so it is rare that a rider rides all three as the accumulated fatigue is so great. Kuss, however, rode all three and finished 14th, 12th and then 1st. Again, you can add that to the 'never seen before' list.

And then there is consistency. In clean racing riders have bad days, and in 2023 we've seen bad days from Pogačar, Evenepoel and Thomas (all grand tour winners). But one team doesn't seem to get bad days anymore

All in all, we have been seeing superhuman feats from the yellow and black team for two years. Not just one rider, but four with van Aert. And then you start to cast your mind to the last time you saw superhuman feats on a bike, and how that ended ...
Aren't you are over-reacting?

Vingegaard and Roglic are 2 of the top 3 (with Pog) of what are a very good crop of Grand Tour riders with Kuss the best super-domestique currently in world cycling. Evanpoel might not be far behind, but he is behind on experience, form and age when it comes to a Grand Tour.

There's no surprise at their perfomance. Had they been 1-2 in GC or on any stages, no one would have raised an eyebrow.

On velogames, despite being in the same team (a red flag usually) Roglic and Vingegaard was the most popular GC pairing selection selected by 1,000s of armchair punters.

The Vuelta "surprise" was Kuss on the GC which came let's be clear came from his Stage 6 breakaway and an effort in the TT which he wouldn't normally push so hard on.

Has anyone heard why Evanpoel performed so poorly on Stage 13? That would be the big question mark for me. It turned the GC in to that 3 horse race between LJ riders.
On the day and following day no one offered an explanation and his management underlined it wasn't illness.

As for the rest, Landa is passed his best and his best was never good enough. Mas, Almeida and Thomas were the only other ones with the pedigree to suggest a potential podium if they put in a solid 3 weeks, but not one of them seemed in great form.

I have to say it's disappointing. I expected a great event, and whilst I enjoyed many of the stages, the overall was a done deal post Tourmalet.